Spiritual activism

According to those who engage in the work of spiritual activism, the practice involves developing one's internal capacities in order to create and inspire change in the material world or society at large. Thus, inherent to the work of spiritual activism is an awareness of a power beyond the material to address a dissatisfaction in the status quo. Chicana feminist Gloria E. Anzaldúa explains the call to spiritual activism as originating out of a love for all things and a desire to create harmony and balance in the world:With awe and wonder you look around, recognizing the preciousness of earth, the sanctity of every human being on the planet, the ultimate unity and interdependence of all beings–somos todos un país. Love swells in your chest and shoots out of your heart chakra, linking you to everyone/everything... You share a category of identity wider than any social position or racial label. This conocimiento motivates you to work actively to see that no harm comes to people, animals, ocean–to take up spiritual activism and healing.All too often, we see success in direct correlation with financial gain and assimilation into mainstream culture. Xicanistas grapple with our need to thoroughly understand who we are–gifted human beings–and to believe in our talents, our worthiness and beauty, while having to survive within the constructs of a world antithetical to our intuition and knowledge regarding life's meaning. Our vision must encompass sufficient confidence that the dominant society will eventually give credence to our ways, if the planet and its inhabitants are to thrive. Velcrow Ripper states that "spiritual activism is not about religion, it is not about any form of dogma, it is activism that comes from the heart, not just the head, activism that is compassionate, positive, kind, fierce, and transformative." Confirming these concepts in his broad examination of historical and current activist movements, Alastair McIntosh writes:Activists can so easily fall into the trap of … ignoring inconvenient truths… Because truth is so vital to spirituality, the activist motivated from this depth never as a final, dogmatic solution. A spiritual activist is one who puts truth before all else, hence the title of Gandhi’s autobiography: Experiments with Truth. Alaskan therapist Wanda Krause states that such people:consciously choose actions according to notions of principles ... They move beyond the material to embrace a higher intelligence – and experience real success. Some of those I have studied do not feel that they are spiritual at all. Some activists do not wish to be elevated to any notion of greatness as they assure me they have their share of past mistakes. Not everyone who I refer to as a spiritual activist affirms a religious belief. …The truly successful align their goals with conscious duty and purpose. … spiritual activists reflect something beyond rational opportunist thinking – a guidance, higher knowing, strong inner calling and principled action. Alastair McIntosh goes on to saySpiritual activism works mainly at the pre-political level. It digs the pilot channels into which subsequent political processes can flow. [Spirituality is] central to activism because it is, first of all, a way of knowing. That leads on to a way of doing, and from thee, to a way of being in what becomes a positive feedback loop…. They all reinforce one another.And, stressing the importance of a spiritual basis for any effective activism, he states:Spirituality values wholes as sacred. Sacredness is not a capitulation to superstition. Sacred is the appropriate adjective for whole things that cannot be taken apart and put back together again, and therefore cannot be valued in material terms (quoting Hafiz’ tale of robbers of a large diamond): healthy forests, snow leopards, clean rivers, starry nights, daughters and brothers and lovers and friends. If nothing is sacred, nothing is safe from the mechanizers of life and calculators of profit; and until we find ways to resacralize our world appropriately, there can be no end to the carnage. == Dismissal ==

In academia Spirituality is widely dismissed in the Western world and within Western institutions as a result of what is known as the Cartesian split: the doctrine introduced by René Descartes in the 1600s to ensure that scientists could practice without fear of oppression by the Roman church. Through the European Enlightenment and legacy of colonialism that followed, the division between the linear, rational methods of science and the intuitive, relational practices of religion and spirituality was imposed on Indigenous peoples as well, discounting the practices and ways of knowing that had developed independently of European science. As a result, the work of numerous scholars, most of whom are women of color and Chicana feminists, have been discounted. For example, many scholars in academia tend to ignore Gloria Anzaldúa's discussion of spirituality, even while recognizing her contributions to feminist theory and borderlands theory. Supporters of spiritual activism argue that, by ignoring this element of Anzaldúa's work, these academics are missing the practice that actually developed Anzaldúa's important theoretical contributions. Irene Lara notes that women of color and "all 'others' who have been similarly other-ized and fragmented" are at the center of spiritual activist work and must fight against being dismissed and silenced in the Western world. As Lara states, "though we aim to transform our selves and our worlds, the reality is that we are part of a society still largely organized around racist and sexist binary ways of knowing." == References ==